- Cinema International Corporation
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Cinema International Corporation (CIC) was a film distribution company started by Paramount Pictures (then owned by Gulf+Western, now a unit of Viacom) and Universal Studios (then a division of the Music Corporation of America – or MCA – now part of NBC Universal) in the early 1970s to distribute the 2 studios' films outside the United States – it even operated in Canada before it was considered part of the "domestic" market.
Contents
Overview
On April 9, 1970, as a part of a cost-cutting move, caused due to declining movie-going audiences, and due to anti-trust rules, Paramount (at the time a Gulf+Western company, today owned by Viacom) and Universal (then owned by MCA Inc., now part of NBCUniversal), merged their international distribution arms, into a new releasing company, Cinema International Corporation (CIC), registered in England and Wales.
In 1973, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer closed down its distribution offices and became a partner in CIC, which took over international distribution for MGM's films; however, United Artists took over the domestic distribution for MGM's films that time. CIC also entered the home video market by forming CIC Video, which distributed Paramount and Universal titles on video worldwide. MGM however, had its own video unit, which later became a joint venture with CBS as MGM/CBS Home Video (later known as MGM/UA Home Video, which then became managed by Warner Home Video).
In 1981, MGM purchased United Artists, which had its own international distribution unit. CIC refused to let MGM drop out of the venture at the time, which led to the reorganization of the company as United International Pictures.
CIC's name lived on in its video division, which became directly managed as a joint venture of Paramount Home Video and MCA Videocassette, Inc. (later MCA Home Video and MCA/Universal Home Video). CIC Video survived until the late 1990s/early 2000s, when Universal purchased PolyGram and reorganized its video division (which was a joint venture with what is now Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and remains so to this day) under the Universal name, while Paramount took over full ownership of CIC Video and merged it under its own video division.
Australia
In Australia, CIC operated as CIC/Fox, a joint venture with 20th Century Fox. CIC/Fox distributed titles by Walt Disney Productions, Paramount Pictures, Universal, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, United Artists (since 1982, a year after MGM merged with UA) and 20th Century Fox. The joint venture was ended in 1986, a year after Rupert Murdoch purchased Fox and Village Roadshow distributed the titles that CIC-Fox had operated except Universal and Paramount (although Roadshow manufactured CIC-Taft Video, the replacement for Rigby-CIC, CIC-Fox's video division).
Vanity Plate Fanfare
CIC's vanity plate fanfare was composed by Jerry Goldsmith for the motion picture A Gathering of Eagles. The fanfare first appeared over the vanity plate for Universal-International in that film. A new arrangement of the fanfare was composed for CIC.
See also
External links
- CIC at the Internet Movie Database
Categories:- Companies disestablished in 1981
- Film distributors
- Universal Studios
- Film studio stubs
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